Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Shift4 Payments, Inc. $FOUR

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) by 13.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 663,788 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 79,557 shares during the quarter. Shift4 Payments makes up approximately 2.3% of Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Shift4 Payments were worth $41,799,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FOUR. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 434 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Shift4 Payments by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $539,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 29.6% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 5,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Shift4 Payments during the 2nd quarter valued at about $249,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Shift4 Payments by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 5,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $527,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on FOUR. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Shift4 Payments from $100.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Seaport Research Partners downgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Shift4 Payments from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.19.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FOUR opened at $39.94 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.22. Shift4 Payments, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.56 and a fifty-two week high of $108.50.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. Shift4 Payments had a net margin of 2.63% and a return on equity of 33.55%. The business’s revenue was up 49.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.07 earnings per share. Shift4 Payments has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.500-5.700 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Shift4 Payments, Inc. will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Shift4 Payments

In other news, major shareholder Jared Isaacman purchased 193,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $40.66 per share, for a total transaction of $7,847,380.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,787,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,677,920.30. The trade was a 12.10% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Shift4 Payments Profile

Shift4 Payments is a U.S.-based provider of integrated payment processing and technology solutions, serving merchants across the hospitality, retail, e-commerce, gaming and lodging industries. The company’s platform enables businesses to accept in-store, online and mobile payments through a combination of point-of-sale hardware, payment gateway services and back-office software. By centralizing transaction processing and reporting, Shift4 aims to simplify payments, enhance security and streamline operations for its merchant customers.

The company’s core offerings include encrypted point-of-sale terminals, cloud-based payment gateways, and developer-friendly APIs for online and mobile checkouts.